How I Met Your Mother
by Delilah Lovett
Summary: Edward and Bella need to tell Charlie they're engaged, but use a distraction to get him ready to accept the big news. Charlie tells the story of how he and Renée met and how they ended up married. AU One-shot. R&R please :D
1. When Charlie Met Renee

**A/N: Okay, so I thought of this just a little while ago and was sad to see that other people had done this, but mine will be different. And I only saw two that were similar to this idea, so yeah. Hope you like my first one-shot :D**

**I do not own any of the characters. They all belong to the wonderful Stephenie Meyer. Any songs mentioned belong to their respective owners.**

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**How I Met Your Mother**

**EPOV**

"Bella, are you sure you're ready to tell him? I mean, we could put it off just a little longer if you want." I asked her, trying to make sure she was comfortable. She had just agreed to marry me, to my great satisfaction, but now we had to tell her parents, starting with Charlie, which left her scared of his reaction.

I heard her sigh next to me, "Yeah, we might as well get it over with. But first, how are his thoughts, would this be a bad time to tell him?" She asked tentatively, as if worried that he'd yell at her or worse, try to kill me. Even though we both know he wouldn't succeed, it would be difficult to have to explain why his bullets did me no harm.

I focused on his thoughts, trying to make sure that it would be relatively safe to give him the good news. Images of Renée and a tiny Bella filled his mind in the form of pictures. He was looking through an old photo album. There were photos of his and Renée's wedding day, Renée in the hospital with newborn Bella. Bella's school portraits since preschool. I smiled at his thoughts and then realized we were still standing on the front porch.

"I'm pretty sure it's safe. I actually think we have the perfect distraction, he's reminiscing from when he and your mom were married and when you were little. He seems calm and it almost seems like he's expecting something like this from you, which would lead to him looking through the albums," I said to Bella, turning thoughtful to myself during my last sentence. She just nodded, as if we were speaking business terms and then lightly knocked on the door.

I heard Charlie stash the photo album away and stumble across the floor to the front door. I heard him trip over the mat in front of the door, like father like daughter and smiled as he opened the door, unnaturally calm at my presence with Bella, ever since I had left those months ago. He welcomed us in.

"Hey, Bells, Edward." He said with a swift nod and went over to sit on the couch, as I closed the door behind us. Bella sat on the couch, next to the recliner Charlie was in. He was pretending to watch the game on television, but his thoughts were all over the place.

_I still wish we could be a family together. But she had to leave so many years ago. I don't exactly blame her. I wonder what they're here for. I have a feeling it's something big. Maybe he knocked her up...Oh shut up, Charlie! Give them the benefit of the doubt. _He looked over at Bella. _She looks just like her mom when she was younger. I can remember the day we met. It was an instant connection..._ Images filled my mind of a young Renée about the same age Bella was now. His thoughts gave me an idea to take the pressure of the announcement.

If I could get him distracted enough with the story of how he and Renée met and got married, maybe he'd be more willing to accept my feelings for Bella and our reasons for getting married so soon, even if they weren't completely the real ones.

I went to sit on the couch, when I passed Charlie's horrible hiding place for the photo album. It was sticking out from the side of the couch, as if he had thrown it underneath before going to get the door. I casually leaned down to pick it up.

"What's this?" I said, brushing the cover of the album off. It read "The Swan Family" in big gold letters across the black leather cover. Charlie immediately flushed a deep crimson, and so did Bella. I heard Charlie grumble in a low voice about "so much, for hiding the dang thing." as Bella sighed a defeated sigh.

"It's our family album. Mostly it's school pictures that mom sent him and pictures from when mom still lived here." She said matter-of-factly. I heard Charlie wince at the last part.

I opened it up and started to scan the pictures that I had just seen in Charlie's mind, outside. Bella looked so much like her mother when she was young, only Renée seemed so much more free-spirited, almost reckless in the pictures. Bella had told me about her weekly changing hobbies and how she never really paid attention to anything she did. It made me ache that Bella had to grow up so fast, almost miss out on the carefree atmosphere of childhood, that even I had experienced, decades ago, but I snapped out of it and got back to the plan. There was a picture of a young, curly-haired Charlie, in a tuxedo and a young, long-haired Renée in a purple knee-length prom dress. It looked like it was from the 80s. Renée's hair was huge and her make-up was bright, she was smiling and laughing in the picture, while Charlie was smiling widely at her, with eyes full of love and adoration.

"How did you and Renée meet? Why did you decide to get married so young?" I asked him, genuinely curious at his answer. Bella seemed to clue in.

"Yeah, I've never heard the story. I'm sure it's fantastic. I mean you guys were high school sweethearts and all." She said smiling enthusiastically.

Charlie sighed, "Fine, fine, I'll tell you. I usually don't like to talk about this, but I mean it's about your mother, too, so I guess you kinda deserve to know." He sighed again before starting his story.

His memories of Renée were so vivid, it was like watching it happen before my eyes while he told the story.

He started slowly, "The first time I saw her was at a football game. She was one of the freshmen cheerleaders. She wasn't one for long, she always got bored of things, but she was a cheerleader for one of the only football games I went to. I saw her, and when our eyes met, it was an instant connection. I felt my grin spread the same as hers did. I, of course, immediately blushed in embarrassment of being caught, but she seemed overjoyed and ran over to me during halftime." He paused for a moment, replaying the memory in his mind, with a slight grin.

"I remember she just walked right up to me and introduced herself. 'Hi, I'm Renée. What's your name?' I remember trying to remember what my name was, I was so intoxicated by her beautiful, brown eyes. I finally managed to tell her my name and asked if I could see her outside of school. She agreed and I was so excited, yet completely frightened. I was sure I'd make a fool out of myself, but being around her made me feel so happy, like it didn't matter if I was being a fool, because she liked it anyways, she liked _me_ anyways."

I smiled at the thought. It was just like Bella and I. I still couldn't believe that she had picked me, let alone actually agreed to marry me. She really wanted to spend eternity with me, and I, with her. He continued his story, which I happily listened to, seeing the resemblance their human love had to Bella and my love.

"So, for our first date, I took her to a drive-in. I didn't try and make any moves on her, just put my arm around her. It was nice having the scent of her perfume and hair so close to me while she laid her head on me. We watched _E.T._ Can you believe it was the premiere? Anyways, I got distracted most of the movie by the sheer presence of her there. I couldn't wrap my head around why she had agreed. I mean, I was no one special, wasn't on the football team, wasn't captain of the basketball team, I was just, Charlie. After the movies, I drove her home and walked her to the door. I was too afraid to kiss her goodbye, so I just gave her a hug, but she caught me by surprise by kissing my cheek before smiling and going inside.

"I couldn't stop thinking about her for the rest of the night, rest of the weekend actually. So, on Monday at school, I asked her to be my girlfriend and gave her my class ring. She surprisingly accepted. A few months later, prom was coming up.

"I found Renée sitting at her usual table, waiting for me to join her for lunch. I couldn't stop myself before I did it. I handed her a half dozen red roses and asked her to prom. She was so excited, she practically screamed 'yes' in my ear. Mind you, I still hated dancing because I wasn't able to do so without hurting myself or the people around me." He chuckled a little at the memories.

I laughed to myself, as I remembered how opposed to dancing Bella was. I wondered if she would let us dance at our wedding. I was brought back to the story when Charlie paused to clear his throat.

"Anyways, so I actually rented a tuxedo and everything. I even picked out a purple corsage and wore a purple tie to match her dress. I remember going to pick her up. Her parents had always loved me since they met me, so it wasn't awkward to stand with them waiting for her to come downstairs.

"Her father held the camera ready as I saw her emerge at the top of the stairs. She looked breathtaking. She had her hair in classic feather curls that cascaded down her back. She wore a purple knee-length dress that flared out from the netting underneath and she wore purple patent leather pumps.

"I was speechless by the time she made it down to me. I turned and a big grin filled my face as I looked down at her and she put her arm around my waist. She started laughing at how silly I looked at then her dad snapped the picture. I always think about how silly I look in that picture. He took pictures of me putting on her corsage and her putting on my boutonnière. Then, it was time to go to the prom.

"That's when I started getting nervous and my hands got clammy. We got into the dance and had an amazing night, surprisingly. Because of that dance, Renée and I found 'our song.' It was 'Open Arms' by Journey.

"After that prom we dated until her senior year. At her graduation party, I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me in front of all her friends and family. She said yes and started crying. We decided to get married because we were so young and in love and it felt like we couldn't live without each other."

I smiled, as that was exactly how Bella and I felt about each other.

"We had the wedding in July. It was a small and simple ceremony with just our family and a few friends. A year and two months later, out came our Isabella." He smiled to himself.

"We were so happy to have her, but something was bothering Renée, I could tell. Over the next few months, we fought quite a bit and I could tell something was going to happen, but I was working so much, I didn't have time to stop it or even see what was wrong, so it caught me off guard when she left." He stopped there and tried not to look upset. He never was one to give into his emotions.

I tried to break the tension that had settled in.

"What a great story. It reminds me a bit of Bella and I. I love her dearly and don't know what I'd do without her." I saw Bella smile sheepishly and nod her head in agreement, while she looked at me. I saw a faint smile play across Charlie's lips, meaning it was time to break the news.

"We have something to tell you, Charlie." I felt Bella tense next to me, trying to force a smile. Charlie visibly tensed his posture, as well.

_Maybe she is pregnant..._I heard him think. He was getting ready to blow up at me.

"Dad. I'm—We're getting married." Bella said from beside me.

Charlie relaxed only a millimeter at the fact that he wasn't going to be a grandfather, but his face turned beet red in anger. This was going to be a long, difficult night to get through alive.

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**So guys, what do you think? Did it suck? Was it boring? Did you love it? Lemme know! R&R. Btw, this is somewhat like how my mom and dad met and married actually. What's even weirder is my mom's middle name is René and my dad's middle name is Charles. And they divorced when I was young and got married at 18. Lol. Weird!  
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**-DL**


	2. Announcement AN

Author's note:

In case you don't read my other stories, this has now become the in between chapter for Chapters 7 and 8 for _I'll Want You Forever, So Forever, It Is_. Be sure to check out the rest of that story to see how this comes into play :D

Thanks to those who read this and hopefully you'll enjoy IWYF, as well.

-DL


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